Festivalul National De Teatru
Bucharest, Romania
3rd – 11th November 2009
Bucharest
Here the show ran on an upstairs balcony while The Cleansing Of Constance Brown was presented in a hall downstairs. There was of course very interesting and still raw recent history to explore here and the representation of the revolution and events leading up to it were well received.
A big talking point was also our use of rice itself. The Danube basin provides ideal land for the cultivation of rice but the foodstuff is not particularly popular in Romania, where wheat and corn are preferred. Wheat was in fact described as being ‘The Face Of God’. So the team faced a number of questions from visitors asking why this food stuff had not been chosen instead. Despite a general national ambivalence towrds rice it turns out that Ceacescu was partial to risotto and rice pudding and did attempt to make Romania self sufficient in rice by forcing landless peasants and prisoners to work on newly created paddy fields. But after the revolution this cultivation was abandoned and rice production in Romania declined. Now rice companies from outside the country are recognising the favourable climate and land that Romania offers and are beginning to buy up the old paddy fields.
Jack’s trip was made when one of the students in a workshop group had heard of West Bromwich Albion (another fine Midlands export)
Credits
Performers: Charlotte Gregory, Kerrie Reading and Jack Trow
Concept: James Yarker
General Manager: Emily Dawkes
Advisory Producer: Nick Sweeting